IMA slams govt for not keeping tab on corona mortality of doctors, health workers

The reaction was prompted by Union Health Minister Dr Harsha Vadhan's statement on coronavirus in the Parliament, which failed to mention anything on the doctors who died in the line of duty.

In its reaction statement, the IMA said, the Health Minister's statement acknowledges the contribution of healthcare workers during the pandemic but fails to provide attention on the loss of doctors' lives due to the contagion.

"It faithfully conceals the morbidity and mortality of doctors, nurses and health care workers... It appears that they are dispensable. No nation has lost as many doctors and health care workers like India," the statement read.

"Doctors suffer 4 times mortality of ordinary citizens and Private Practitioners suffer 8 times mortality on the same scale. To feign that this information doesn't merit the attention of the nation is abominable," it added.

If the government doesn't "maintain the statistics of total number of doctors and health care workers infected by Covid 19 and the statistics of how many of them sacrificed their life due to the pandemic, it loses the moral authority to administer the Epidemic Act 1897 and the Disaster Management Act," the IMA stated.

The body said such a situation exposes the "hypocrisy of calling them corona warriors on one hand and denying them and their families the status and benefits of martyrdom."